Maria Leaf
WMAL.com

ROCKVILLE — (WMAL) Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Jack Smith says he is “deeply grieved” over the allegations that a 14-year old girl was raped by two fellow students at Rockville High School. While police and others are investigating the immigration status of the two men accused of the sexual assault, Dr. Smith says immigration status isn’t the key issue here:

“While some would try to make this into an question and issue of immigration, what comes down here is that we serve every student that walks in our doors. We are a public school system and we serve all of our students when they come to us… It is not only the right thing to do and the good thing to do and it benefits the students and our community and our state, it is the law of the land.”

Dr. Smith says the district does not know the immigration status of anyone in the district because they can’t based on the law. However, he estimates 25,000 students don’t speak English as their primary language.  “What we’re not going to say is of those 25,000 students…some are here with different types of documentation and some have none. And it’s wholly and entirely inappropriate for any of us anytime anywhere to say that we are going to deprive a 6 year old, an 8 year old, a 12 year old, 14 year old, a 15 year old, an 18 year old of an education because a horrible incident happened last Thursday in one of our schools.”

Dr Smith says he wants to reassure parents that their children are safe, and that the district has been reviewing safety efforts in the schools.

You can hear more of his comments from the news conference here:

PART ONE:

PART TWO:

(PHOTO: WMAL Reporter Steve Burns)